MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND

BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL

SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
The Movement can be categorized into 2 phases:

Pre-World War and During the World War:

The movement was centered around religious symbols due to
which it lacked mass appeal.
Directed against various British Institutions but lacked proper
planning.
Post World War:
The movement was influenced by the Russian Revolution and
became more organised.
HSRA emerged, with Bhagat Singh as its most prominent
leader.
Emerged in first decade of 20th century in Bengal (Kolkata)
and Maharashtra (Pune).
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
Reasons:
Originated as a by product of the growth of militant nationalism.
The early movement led by the moderates failed to yield results.
Extremist leaders failed to create an effective organization to tap
the revolutionary spirit.
Revolutionaries were inspired by the Irish Republican Army and
Japan’s victory over Russia in 1904.
Repressive policy of the government.
Individual heroic acts.
Assassinations of unpopular officials.
Targeted British institutions.
Swadeshi dacoities to raise funds for revolutionary activities.
Military conspiracies with the expectation of help from
enemies of Britain.
Secret societies.
Organized people on religious lines and tried to inspire the youth
through stories and deeds of Gods and Goddesses.
Included women members, of whom many were messengers.
By the 1870s, Calcutta’s student community was replete
with secret societies.
1902: Anushilan Samiti emerged as the first
revolutionary group in Calcutta.
It was established by Promotha Mitter, and included
Barindra Kumar Ghosh
Barindra Ghosh, Jatindranath Banerjee and others.
Midnapore: Led by Jnanendranath Basu
2 prominent arms in East and West Bengal.
Dhaka Anushilan Samiti (centered at Dhaka) and the
Jugantar group (centered at Calcutta).

Anushilan Samiti symbol

Activities were limited to giving physical and moral training to
the members.
1906: an inner circle within Anushilan (Barindra Kumar Ghosh
and Bhupendranath Dutta) started the weekly Yugantar and
conducted a few “abortive actions”.
Yugantar wrote on the police brutalities against participants of
the Barisal Conference:
o “The remedy lies with the people. The 30-crore people inhabiting
India must raise their 60 crore hands to stop this curse of
oppression. Force must be stopped by force.”
o Newspapers and journals like Sandhya and Yugantar
advocated revolutionary activity.
Hemachandra Kanungo went abroad for military and political
training.
1907: An abortive attempt was made by the Yugantar group on the
life Sir Fuller (the first Lt. Governor of the new province of Eastern
Bengal and Assam).
1907: An attempt was made to derail the train on which the
Lt. governor, Sir Andrew Fraser was travelling.
1908: Barrah dacoity was organised by Dacca Anushilan
under Pulin Das to raise funds for revolutionary activities.

Pulin Behari Das

Maniktala bomb conspiracy
Trial of numerous revolutionaries under charges of "Waging war
against the Government", between May 1908 and May 1909.
Followed the attempt on the life of Presidency Magistrate Douglas
Kingsford in Muzaffarpur by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla
Chaki in 1908.
Two ladies got killed mistakenly.
Chaki shot himself dead while Bose was tried and hanged.
The whole group was arrested, including the Ghosh brothers.
Chittaranjan Das defended Aurobindo.
Aurobindo was acquitted but Barindra Ghosh and Ullaskar
Dutt were given the death penalty which was later commuted to life
in prison.
Narendra Gosain, who had turned approver, was shot dead in
jail by Satyendranath Bose and Kanailal Dutta.
1879: Ramosi Peasant Force by Vasudev Balwant
Phadke.
Aimed to oust the British by instigating an armed revolt by
disrupting communication lines.

Vasudev Balwant Phadke

1984 stamp of India
1890s: Tilak propagated a spirit of revolutionary
nationalism, through Ganapati and Shivaji festivals and
his journals Kesari and Maharatta.
His disciples - The Chapekar brothers,
Damodar, Balkrishna and Vasudeo murdered the
Plague Commissioner of Poona, Rand and also Lt. Ayerst Tilak's Kesari

in 1897.
V.D. Savarkar and his brother Ganesh Savarkar
organised Mitra Mela, a secret society, in 1899.
Mitra Mela merged with Abhinav Bharat in 1904.
Nasik Conspiracy Case,1909: Anant Kanhere and
Ganesh Savarkar shot dead Collector Jackson of
Nasik. V.D. Savarkar
1996
Match List-I with List-II and select the correct
answer:
List-I. List-

A) Abhinav Bharat II.

1. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
Society 2. Lala Hardayal
B) Anushillan Samiti 3. C.R. Das
C) Gadar Party 4. V.D. Savarkar
D) Swaraj Party

A A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2 B A-1, B-4, C-3, D-2

C A-1, B-4, C-2, D-3 D A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3

1999
‘Abhinav Bharat’ a secret society of revolutionaries was organised
by:
A Khudiram Bose B V.D. Savarkar

C Prafulla Chaki D Bhagat Singh

Vanchinathan Iyer (Vanchi) assassinated Robert Ashe (District
Collector of Tirunelveli), as he had fired on people who were
protesting the arrest V. O. Chidambaram Pillai.
Vanchi was a close associate of V.V.S. Iyer who led Pondicherry
Branch of V.D. Savarkar’s Abhinav Bharat Society.
Both were members of Bharath Matha Association.
Rashbehari Bose and Sachin Sanyal organised a secret society
covering these areas.
Punjab extremism was fueled by issues such as frequent famines,
rise in land revenue and irrigation tax, practice of ‘begar’ by
zamindars.
Among those active here were Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh,
who organised the Anjuman-i-Mohisban-i-Watan in Lahore with
its journal, Bharat Mata.
Extremism in Punjab died down quickly after the Government
struck in May 1907 with a ban on political meetings and the
deportation of Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh.
Ajit Singh and a few other associates like Bhai Parmanand and
Lala Hardayal developed into full-scale revolutionaries.
Rash Behari Bose and Sachin Sanyal.
Involved an attempted assassination, when a bomb was thrown on
Viceroy Hardinge.
Viceroy escaped with injuries, along with Lady Hardinge.
Rash Behari successfully evaded capture for nearly 3 years,
becoming actively involved in the Ghadar conspiracy before it
was uncovered.
He fled to Japan in 1916.
The need for shelter, to avoid the Press Acts and the quest
for arms took Indian revolutionaries abroad.
1905: Shyamji Krishna Varma had started in London an
Indian Home Rule Society — ’India House’ — as a center
for Indian students, a scholarship scheme to bring radical
youth from India.
Revolutionaries such as Savarkar and Hardayal became
the members of India House.
Madanlal Dhingra assassinated the India office bureaucrat
Curzon-Wyllie in 1909.
London became too dangerous for the revolutionaries, particularly
after Savarkar had been extradited in 1910 and transported for life
in the Nasik conspiracy case.
Paris and Geneva: Madam Bhikaji Cama (who brought out
Bande Mataram) and Ajit Singh operated from these new
centres.
After 1909, when Anglo-German relations deteriorated,
Virendra Chattopadhyaya chose Berlin as his base.
Indian nationalist publication from Paris that began in
September 1909 by the Paris Indian Society.
Founded by Madam Bhikaji Cama.
Along with the later publication of Talvar, the paper
was aimed at inciting nationalist unrest in India and
sought to sway the loyalty of the Sepoys of the British Madan Lal Dhingra

Indian Army.
It was founded in response to the British ban on
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's nationalist poem of
Vande Mataram.
It continued the message of the journal Bande Mataram
edited by Sri Aurobindo and published from Calcutta,
and The Indian Sociologist that had earlier been
published
from London by Shyamji Krishna Varma.
1999
Match List I with List II and select the correct
answer:
List-I (Persons) List-II (Journals)

A. Shyamji Krishna 1. Bande Mataram

Varma 2. Indian Sociologist
B. Madam Bhikaji Cama 3. The Talwar
C. Annie Besant 4. Commonweal
D. Aurobindo Ghosh
Codes: A B C
DA 2341 B 3214

C 2314 D 3241
 Discuss the growth of revolutionary terrorism with special reference
to its ramification in Maharashtra, Bengal and Punjab till the first
1991
decade of the 20th century.
Revolutionary activity was carried out through the Ghadar Party
in North America, Berlin Committee in Europe and some
scattered
mutinies by Indian soldiers, such as the one in Singapore.
The War seemed a great opportunity, as the number of white soldiers
went down at one point to only around 15000 and provided the
possibility of financial and military help from Germany and Turkey—
the enemies of Britain.
Revolutionary activity in this period was concentrated
in Punjab and Bengal.
The Bengal plans were part of a conspiracy organized by Rash
Behari Bose and Sachin Sanyal in cooperation with returned
Ghadrites in Punjab.
Most Bengal groups were organized under Jatin Mukherji Bagha Jatin

(Bagha Jatin) and planned disruption of railway lines,

seizure of Fort William and landing of German arms.
These plans were ruined due to poor coordination and Bagha
died near Balasore in 1915.
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
The revolutionaries faced severe repression during the
First World War.
In early 1920, many were released by the Government under
a general amnesty to create an amenable situation for
the Montford Reforms to work.
There was a temporary respite in revolutionary activity after the
War:
The release of prisoners held under the Defence of India
Rules cooled down passions to an extent.
An atmosphere of conciliation followed Montagu's statement
and the talk of constitutional reforms.
The arrival of Mahatma Gandhi with the programme of
nonviolent non-cooperation brought new hope.
Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Under the persuasion of Gandhi and C.R. Das, many
revolutionary groups either agreed to join the non-cooperation or
suspended their activities.
But the sudden withdrawal of the movement left many of
them disillusioned.
They began to question the basic strategy of nationalist
leadership and its emphasis on non-violence and began to look
for alternatives.
Younger nationalists were not attracted to the parliamentary
work of the Swarajists or to the constructive work of the No-
changers.
They were convinced that violent methods alone would free
India.
Upsurge of working-class trade unionism after the War;
the revolutionaries wanted to harness the revolutionary
potential of the new emergent class for nationalist revolution.
Russian Revolution and the success of the young Soviet
state in consolidating itself.
Newly sprouting communist groups with their emphasis
on Marxism, socialism and the proletariat.
Journals publishing memoirs and articles extolling the self-
sacrifice of revolutionaries, such as Atmasakti, Sarathi and
Bijoli.
Novels and books such as Bandi Jiwan by Sachin Sanyal
and Pather Dabi by Sharath Chandra Chatterjee.
Nearly all major revolutionary leaders had been
enthusiastic participants in the Non-Cooperation
Movement
Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee
Surya Sen
Bhagat Singh
Sukhdev Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru

Chandrashekhar Azad
Shiv Verma
Bhagwati Charan Vohra
Jaidev Kapur
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
The HRA was founded in October 1924 in Kanpur by
Ram Prasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and
Sachin Sanyal.
It was aimed to organize an armed revolution to overthrow
the colonial government.
To establish in its place a ‘Federal Republic of United States of
India’ with the basic principle of adult franchise.
Later renamed to ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
or HSRA’.
One of the most important “actions” of the HRA.
The men held up a train at Kakori, an obscure village near Lucknow,
and looted its official railway cash.
Government crackdown after the event led to many arrests.
17 were jailed, 4 transported for life and 4 - Bismil, Ashfaqullah,
Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged.
Kakori proved to be a setback for the HRA.
To overcome the Kakori setback, the younger revolutionaries, inspired by
socialist ideas, set out to reorganize Hindustan Republic Association at a
historic meeting in the ruins of Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi (September
1928).
H.R.A. was changed to H.S.R.A (Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association).
The participants included Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev,
Bhagwati Charan Vohra from Punjab and Bejoy
Kumar Sinha,
Shiv Verma and Jaidev Kapur from U.P.
HSRA decided to work under a collective leadership.
The Tribune Front page on the day of
It adopted socialism as its official goal. execution

Bhagat Singh was influenced by ideology of Marx and

Lenin.
Aimed to abolish Zamindari System
Used slogans like Inquilab Zindabad and Rang de Basanti.
Targeted not only British but also Indian capitalists, zamindars,
kings and communal forces.
Influenced by communist ideologies.
At a time when HSRA revolutionaries had begun to move away
from individual heroic action and violence, the death of Sher-i-
Punjab Lala Lajpat Rai compelled them to take up individual
assassination.
Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru shot dead Saunders, the
police official responsible for the lathi charge in Lahore.
The HSRA leadership decided to let the people know about its
changed objectives and the need for a revolution by the masses.
Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb in the
Central Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929 against the
passage of the Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill.
The bills were aimed at curtailing civil liberties of citizens
in general, and workers in particular.
The bombs had deliberately been made harmless and were aimed
at making ‘the deaf hear’.
The objective was to get arrested and to use the trial court as a
forum for propaganda in order to familiarise people with their
movement and ideology.
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were tried in the
Lahore conspiracy case.
In jail, the brave men protested the horrible conditions through a
fast and demanded honorable and decent treatment as political
prisoners.
Jatin Das became the first martyr on the 64th day of his fast.
Azad who was involved in a bid to blow up Viceroy Irwin’s train
near Delhi in December 1929, was killed in a police encounter at a
park in Allahabad in February 1931.
March 23, 1931: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged.
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
After C.R. Das’s death (1925), the Bengal Congress broke up into 2
factions:
One led by J.M. Sengupta (Anushilan group joined forces with
him)
The other led by Subhash Bose (backed by Yugantar group)
1924: Assassination attempt on the Calcutta Police
Commissioner, Charles Tegart by Gopinath Saha. A
white civilian Ernest Day was killed mistakenly.
Gopinath Saha was hanged.
The British Government, armed with a new ordinance, came
Gopinath_Saha
down heavily on revolutionaries.
Many including Subhash Bose were arrested.
He had participated in the Non-Cooperation
Movement and had become a teacher in the National
school in Chittagong.
He was imprisoned from 1926 to 1928 for revolutionary
activity and afterwards continued working in the Congress.
Was the secretary of the Chittagong District
Surya Sen
Congress Committee.
He believed that "Humanism is a special virtue of a
revolutionary".
He was a lover of poetry and an admirer of Tagore and
Qazi Nazrul Islam.
Supported by Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and
Lokenath Baul. The gallows in Chittagong Central Jail,
Bangladesh where Sen was hanged.
To prove that it was possible to challenge the armed might of
the mighty British.
They planned to occupy two main armories in Chittagong to seize
and supply arms to revolutionaries.
A group of six revolutionaries, led by Ganesh Ghosh, captured
the Police Armoury, shouting slogans such as Inquilab Zindabad,
Down with Imperialism and proclaiming that Gandhi's Raj has
been established.
Another group of 10, led by Lokenath Baul, took over the
Auxiliary Force Armory.
They also aimed to destroy telephone and telegraph lines
and
to dislocate railway link of Chittagong with the rest of Bengal.
The raid was carried out under the banner of Indian Republican
Army Chittagong Branch.
Sen hoisted the national flag, took salute and proclaimed a
Provisional Revolutionary Government.
Later, they dispersed into neighboring villages and raided
government targets.
Sen was arrested in February 1933 and hanged in January 1934.
2000
Match List I with List II and select the correct
answer:
List-I List-II

A. Chittagong Armoury 1. Kalpana Dutt

Raid 2. Guru Ram Singh
B. Abhinav Bharat 3. VD Savarkar
C. Anushilan Samiti 4. Aurobindo Ghosh
D. Kuka Movement
Codes: A B C
DA 1342 B 1324

C 3124 D 3142
The movement witnessed large-scale participation of young
women especially under Surya Sen.
These women provided shelter, carried messages and fought with
guns.
An emphasis on group action aimed at organs of the colonial
state, instead of individual action.
Objective: Set an example before the youth and to demoralize
bureaucracy.
Some of the earlier Hindu religiosity was shed, and there were no
more rituals like oath-taking and this facilitated participation by
Muslims.
Muslims such as Mir Ahmed, Fakir Ahmed Mian and Tunu
Mian
participated.
Prominent women revolutionaries included Pritilata Waddedar,
who died conducting a raid on Railway Institute at Paharatali.
Kalpana Dutt was arrested, tried along with Surya Sen
and given a life sentence.
1931: Santi Ghosh and Suniti Chandheri, schoolgirls of Comilla,
Kalpana Dutt
shot dead the District Magistrate.
1932: Bina Das fired point blank at the Governor while receiving
her degree at convocation.
2001
Who among the following organised the famous Chittagong armory
raid?
A Laxmi Sehgal B Surya Sen

C Batukeshwar Datta D J.M. Sengupta

MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
MEANING AND PRE-WORLD POST WORLD HRA, HSRA REVOLUTIONAR ANALYSIS AND
BACKGROUND WAR PHASE WAR PHASE AND BHAGAT Y ACTIVITIES IN IDEOLOGICAL
SINGH BENGAL REVIEW
There was panic initially followed by severe government repression.
Armed with around 20 repressive acts, the Government brutally
used the police against the revolutionaries.
Chittagong: Several villages were burned, and punitive fines
were
imposed on many others.
1933, J.L. Nehru was arrested for sedition and given 2 years
sentence because he had condemned imperialism and praised the
heroism of the revolutionaries.
Removed fear of authority and encouraged common people to
stand up against authority.
Forced the Government to make some legislative changes in
response to demands by the nationalists.
Aroused a patriotic feeling among Indians.
The revolutionaries believed in secularism and promoted it.
Secularism was identified as the key to India’s unity and
Independence.
Though the movement became weak after the death of Bhagat
Singh, it didn’t die completely, and many revolutionaries
resurfaced during the 1942 Quit India Movement.
The Founding Council of HRA had decided to preach revolutionary
and communist principles, and the HRA Manifesto (1925) declared
that:
"HRA stood for abolition of all systems which made
exploitation of man by man possible".
HRA had proposed nationalization of railways and other
means of transport and of heavy industries such as ship building
and steel.
HRA had also decided to start labor and peasant organizations
and work for an organized and armed revolution.
During their last days (late 1920s):
The revolutionaries started moving away from individual heroic
action and violence towards mass politics.
Bismil, during his last days, appealed to the youth to give up
violence, not to work in revolutionary conspiracies and instead
work in an open movement.
He urged the youth to strengthen Hindu-Muslim unity, and to unite
all political groups under the leadership of the Congress.
Bismil affirmed faith in communism and the principle that
"every human being has equal rights over the products of nature".
The famous statement of the revolutionary position is contained in the
book “The Philosophy of the Bomb” written by Bhagwati
Charan Vohra.
Bhagat Singh had moved away from belief in violent and individual
heroic action to Marxism and the belief that a popular broad-based
movement alone could lead to a successful revolution.
Revolution could only be "by the masses, for the masses".
Bhagat Singh helped establish the Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha
(1926) as an open wing of revolutionaries to carry out political work
among the youth, peasants and workers.
Bhagat Singh was fully secular - he considered religion to be a
matter of personal belief.
Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev organized the Lahore Students'
Union
for open, legal work among students.
Bhagat Singh and his comrades realized that a revolution meant
organization and development of a mass movement of the exploited
and the suppressed sections by the revolutionary intelligentsia.
He believed “real revolutionary armies are in villages and
factories”.
A few weeks before his death, Bhagat Singh wrote the article ‘Why I
am an Atheist’ in which he subjected religion and religious philosophy
to a scathing critique.
He traced his own path to atheism.
To be a revolutionary, one required immense moral strength,
coupled with ‘criticism and independent thinking’.
In the struggle for self-emancipation, humanity had to struggle
against ‘the narrow conception of religion’ as also against
the belief in God.
Because of the rapidity of change in thinking, effective acquisition of
a new ideology is a prolonged process.
These young intellectuals faced the dilemma of how to mobilize
people and recruit them.
They decided to opt for propaganda by deed, i.e., through
individual heroic action and by using courts as a forum for
revolutionary propaganda.
The movement retained some conservative elements.
It failed to evolve broader socio-economic goals.
 Evaluate the contribution of revolutionary terrorism represented by
Bhagat Singh to the cause of India’s struggle for independence.
(150
2007 words)